Please hit "WEBCASTS"
Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him. (Eph.5:18 AMP)
Anything short of a Spirit-filled life is less than God’s plan for each believer. (Billy Graham)
The Spirit-filled life is not a mystical, unattainable lifestyle that God offers but keeps just out of our reach. It is a life of process—a life of becoming under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.[1]
Being filled with the Spirit is an inside job. If you insist on an outer experience, then you make emotions the king. (Jack R. Taylor)
There are three observations to be made. One, the Greek text of Eph. 5:18–21 is one long sentence. The Holman Christian Bible translation seeks to reproduce them in one sentence.[2]
And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord
Preceding filling of the Holy Spirit, many past writers called their initial experience as baptism of the Spirit or sealing. The phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4) and “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5) appears to be interchangeable.[3]
To be filled with the fullness of God was like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, the ocean is in the bottle, the ocean contains the bottle, the bottle contains a little bit of the ocean and so with Christians. We are filled under the fullness of God, but of course we cannot contain all of God because God contains us.[4]
How to be filled with the Holy Spirit
Being filled with Holy Spirit is a normal Christian life, whereas not to be filled seems abnormal by New Testament standards. How does the empowering presence and power of the Holy Spirit become a reality and not just an intellectual exercise? The Triune God desires to fill us and can be seen in Luke 11:13: “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (emphasis mine). It is for housewives, students, ministers lay people—everyone.
Although Scripture does not prescribe a formula on how to be filled, it is reasonable to assume there are certain prerequisites for the filling of the Holy Spirit in light of Scriptural teachings.
What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
“Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18 cf. Acts 4:8, 31; 6:3; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9). The “infilling of the Holy Spirit” refers to being controlled and guided by the Holy Spirit. Here we see Paul using an analogy between alcoholic intoxication and control by the Holy Spirit.
[When one is] filled with wine every part of his body is affected by the wine: how he walks, talks, thinks, and sees. So, too, with being “filled by the Spirit!” It simply means that our every action, thought, and word is brought under his sway. To be “filled with the Spirit” refers to his taking control, mastering, and possessing us. (David Haney)
The Spirit-filled life, or Spirit-possessed life, is not one in which we have a certain amount of the Spirit, but rather one in which He possess all of us. . . . The Spirit-filled life is one in which the Spirit expresses Himself within an individual as a controlling and overflowing force. The condition is one of yieldedness on our part. We are filled as we are emptied of self.[5]
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). A faulty conception of being Spirit-filled, however, is that this control is instantaneous (all at once) and instantaneously total (all at once). Contrary to such, it is not instantaneous just as being filled with wine is not. Rather, it is progressive, growing, and spreading in its effect, moving into every area of our lives. This infilling is a continuous process and not once and for all—“Be filled and keep on filling or refilling” (like petrol for a car). Why? Because we leak whenever we give in to sin or temptation. Hence, it is a continuous appropriation.
Unfortunately millions of God’s people do not enjoy the unlimited spiritual wealth at their disposal because they are not filled with the Spirit. . . . Christians so often lack the fullness of the Spirit with its true dependence on God’s power for the ministry. I think it proper to say that anyone who is not Spirit-filled is a defective Christian.[6]
A. W. Tozer lists three things to do. First, present our bodies to him (Rom. 12:1–R. A. Torrey lists seven things to do. When you put all of them together, the following steps are: 1) rest on the finished work of Christ; 2) renounce all sins; 3) open confession of our sins and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour; 4) absolute surrender to God; 5) thirst; 6) just ask him; and, 7) faith.[7] All he wants is for us to yield, obey, and open our hearts. He then rushes in and our lives are transformed and changed.[8]
In sum, if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we need surrender to God (Rom 6:13), obedience (Acts 5:32), hunger/desire/thirst (Matt. 5:6; John 7:37–39; Isa. 44:3), faith (1 John 5:4; 2 Cor. 5:7) repentance, ask, appropriate, accept it by faith (Mark 11:24; Jas. 1:5–8).
To be filled does not mean we are perfect and without sin. Neither is it once and for all. It is a process not an end point. Ask God to fill us daily. Will you yield to him?
Once it was the blessing,
Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling,
Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted,
Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing,
Now Himself alone.
(Albert Simpson)
Results of a Spirit-Filled Life
According to Eph. 5:19–21, there are five characteristics, actions, or consequences when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.[9] Observe that they consist of horizontal and vertical dimensions.[10]
Hence, a Spirit-filled/controlled church is God-centred (vertical) and people-related (horizontal). It displays attitudes (giving thanks and submitting to one another) and conducts activities (speaking, singing, making melody). These are not self-centred activities but rather God-centred (vertical) and people-centred (horizontal). The church is not about “us” but the Lord and others. This should make us rethink about churches that have become rock concerts and “infotainment” instead of Body-Life.
Results of a Spirit-Filled Life
According to Oswald J. Smith they include victory over sin, power in service, fruit of the Spirit, and burden for souls.[11] One of the key operative words is new power for service. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not the end but the beginning of the end.
Trying to do the Lord’s work in your strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you. (Corrie Ten Boom)
I have learned to place myself before God every day as a vessel to be filled with His Holy Spirit. (Andrew Murray)
[1] Jack Hayford, Living the Spirit-Formed Life (repr., Minneapolis, MN: Chosen, 2017), 55.
[2] Unlike the NIV and several others who break up the one sentence into a few sentences.
[3] All believers have been baptized into the body of Christ which have given them access to heaven, but not all are filled to give them access to power to live a victorious Christian life. Or experience the true joy of abundant living. Different terminologies have been used such as baptism of the Spirit, second blessing, etc. To avoid confusion I use the term baptism of the Spirit as an initial act when we come to faith in Christ (and baptism happened only once) but filling occurs many times and refilling. How about fresh baptism? In other words, only one baptism but many fillings for power and service according to Scripture. One baptism but many repeated refilling.
[4] Using A. B. Simson’s illustration cited in James L. Synder, ed., Tozer: Mystery of the Holy Spirit (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2007), 75–6.
[5] Myron S. Augsburger, Quench Not the Spirit (Scottdale, PN: Herald Press, 1961), 17–18.
[6] Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988), 115,116.
[7] R. A. Torrey, The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does, ed. Harold J. Chadwick (Alachua, FL: Bridge–Logos, 2008), 161–206.
[8] James L. Synder, ed., Tozer: Mystery of the Holy Spirit (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2007), 78.
[9] This older view where the emphasis is on individual/congregation and steps given/taken to be filled, as compared to the new view where the emphasis is solely on congregation has greater merit. For the latest view, see Graham A. Cole, Engaging with the Holy Spirit (Nottingham, England: Apollos, 2007), 109–24. For the older view, see Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 781–4 and Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters o Paul (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005).
[10] Another modern view sees these five activities do not lead to filling by the Spirit. Rather, they indicate the means by which the command is obeyed. The whole point of being Spirit-filled answers the question, “Who is in charge?” (the contrast between drunkenness and Spirit-filled) and, “How does a church behave when she is Spirit-filled?” See Graham A. Cole, Engaging with the Holy Spirit (Nottingham, England: Apollos, 2007), 109–24.
[11] Oswald J. Smith, The Enduement of Power (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1951), 112.